It’s the most wonderful time of the year, thanks to the lovely Jamie of Perpetual Page Turner! I live for this Annual End of Year Survey, even though it hurts my soul to have to narrow down responses.

These are always a little weird for me to do because writing the preview posts for B&N means that I read a lot of books far in advance – my reading schedule isn’t like most other book bloggers’ – and being an author means I might’ve beta read books two years before they come out. So, I’m sticking to books that were published in 2016 and that I read in 2016 (except where noted)!

2016 Reading Stats

Number Of Books You Read: 185 (As of 12/9)
Number of Re-Reads: Ain’t nobody got time for that
Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary YA

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Weirdly, while I absolutely loved Six of Crows and The Wrath and the Dawn – like all-time top five fave fantasies loved – their sequels didn’t do anything for me. And I know they were good sequels; I think I’m just way more of a standalone person when it comes to fantasy. A thousand percent a case of It’s not you, it’s me, and I am very glad to see how alone I am on that front.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

Cherry by Lindsey Rosin – not only was this a super fun read, but it wasn’t heteronormative! Which, in fairness, wasn’t a huge surprise when I read it because Christina told me it wasn’t, which is what shoved it to the top of my TBR, but still. I also don’t know what I was thinking going into Girl Mans Up, but I definitely didn’t think I was gonna love it, so that was a delightful surprise and I am very psyched about that Morris nom!

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2016?

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2016 to finally read?

How to Repair a Mechanical Heart by JC Lillis. That’s one of my favorite LGBTQIAP YAs of all time now and people were talking about its greatness for SO LONG, but I was too lazy to pick it up for NO GOOD REASON.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2016?

“On our wedding night,” she said, “I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.” (Kiersten White, And I Darken)

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2016?

I guess that would be When the Moon Was Oursby Anna-Marie McLemore? I just do not see anyone who writes like her, and the representation and imagination and imagery in that book are all just stunning. I feel like “unique” should be something that works with format in a cool way, but this was the only book I could settle on that felt right.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Asking For it by Louise O’Neill, and no, it definitely doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2016?

Queer Lit on my Mind, which isn’t exactly a book blog but it’s a (now-) friend’s Tumblr on which they post some of the most thoughtful and interesting reviews of LGBTQIAP books I’ve ever read.

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

I vacillate on whether or not I’ll do it again, but I’m really, really proud of #AuthorLifeMonth and how many authors it brought out of their shells on Instagram, and especially how many people said things like “I’ve never realized how much I’ve accomplished before.” Those two things were exactly the point, and I love that it worked.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2016?

Starting LGBTQReads. The love that site received upon launch was wonderful, and it still gets so much interaction every day. The messages I get on Tumblr in particular are so freaking wonderful, and it’s been amazing to help people find the books they need and to be a source for authors to promote stuff they’d ordinarily have trouble finding a place to do so.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

I’m actually pleasantly surprised with the viewership on this blog, considering how infrequently I post on it these days. But I want more people to play Choices and interact with this interview!

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

I haven’t even been to The Ripped Bodice yet (fingers crossed for February!) but it is EVERYTHING. They did host me for a Skype chat one month when they chose Out on Good Behaviorfor their book club and that was amazing ❤

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yep! Goodreads challenge was 175 books and I completed that, and goal was to finally set up LGBTQReads and I did that.

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2016 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2017?

Thanks to all who participated in my contest for the release of Out on Good Behavior, and congrats to the winner, Alison! For those who didn’t get all of them and want the key, here’s Samara’s official reading list, paired with the quotes from the book:

This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

She laughs. “It’s a really good book! Though it actually kind of destroyed me—it’s about a school shooting, told in real time from all these different perspectives, and honestly I probably would’ve just stayed in tonight, but after I finished, I felt like I needed to be around living, breathing people for an hour.”

None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio

Rainbow House is brimming over with people by the time I show up that night. Everyone who enters gets one of those “Hello, My Name Is” stickers, only these say, “Hello, My Pronouns Are.” I grab one and a purple Sharpie, scrawl on “She/Her,” and search my shirt for a stretch of fabric large enough to hold it. I end up sticking it just above the hem of my glittery halter, then go off in search of familiar faces. I don’t spot Abe or Sid right away, but I do accept an excited hug from Emily Strother, who’s wearing an “I Heart My Gonads” pin affixed to her sweater.

The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne

I can’t help smiling at that, and after a few moments, so does she. “I recommended a really good political one about a girl whose dad is running for president, but he was not amused. Might’ve been the hot-pink cover.”

Underneath Everything by Marcy Beller Paul

“Lesbians?” I ask with a waggle of my eyebrows.

She tips her head to the side. “Let’s say…sexual orientation unclear. But I have my theories.”

“How are you so good at getting me interested in these?” I ask as I watch her tuck away the black hardcover.

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler or About a Girl by Sarah McCarry

“Deal. I know just the book for you—lesbians right on the cover.”

The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

“I think so, yeah. The writing is gorgeous, and it feels so artistic, I can totally see you loving it. It’s magical realism, and it has the most beautiful forbidden love story.” As she continues to gush about the book, I realize this is the most animated—maybe the most comfortable—I’ve seen her all weekend. Is it possible she’s more into books than me? Is booksexuality a thing?

Second Position by Katherine Locke

Her middle name is Jane. She doesn’t take coffee at all (see above); green tea is her caffeinated beverage of choice. Tea, period, is probably her favorite thing on earth, and lately she’s taken to drinking it with one orange teabag and one vanilla teabag, because she read it in a book she loved and thought it sounded delicious.

Black Iris by Leah Raeder

I glance at the book on the floor—is that flower on the cover supposed to look so vaginal?—and then back at Sam. She hasn’t so much as stirred since I walked in. Kissing her awake seems too presumptuous, so I kneel by the bed and lift her fingers to my lips instead. Her eyelids flutter open, revealing those gorgeous tiger eyes that melt me every time, and I say, “Hey.”

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

“How could I not ship us?”

“But, like, where do we rank? Do we beat Tim and Jenna?”

“You mean Taylor and Jonah?” She sighs. “Yes, Frankie, I ship us harder than Taylor and Jonah.”

The Conspiracy of Us and Map of Fates by Maggie Hall

“What about those books where you switched teams from one guy to the other in the middle? The one where you said the pink-covered book almost turned you bi.”

She contemplates for a minute. “I ship us harder than the girl with either guy,” she says carefully.

I only saw this Top Ten Tuesday topic (courtesy of The Broke and the Bookish) once actual posts started popping up on my Twitter feed at midnight, but since it’s a topic I love so much, I’m gonna quickly jump in, despite a sad lack of graphics:

37 Things I Love (In No Particular Order) by Kekla Magoon – grieving, dealing with old relationships, being open to the unexpected when it’s what makes you happy in tough times…this is one of the few f/f books I don’t talk about enough because it’s really not about sexuality and it pretty adamantly doesn’t deal with identity, which I know isn’t everyone’s jam (and also, admittedly, because it has kind of an unfinished feel to me, which is a personal pet peeve in books; what I really want is the sequel to this), but it’s such a valid and real and true human experience.

For Real by Alison Cherry – I love travel books, I love sister books, and I love books with the kind of pacing that makes you never want to put them down. This book was all three, and so much fun while also being really touching.

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey – This is one I used to talk about a lot, and I think I just trailed off because I read it such a long time ago, but it’s one of my favorite YA fantasies. If killer voice and really fun casts and edge and humor and some queerness are your things like they are mine, make sure you pick this one up in time for the sequel, The Shadow Hour.

Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott – The books I flail about a lot are usually the ones I confidently know to recommend, but this one, which I really loved, trips me up on that front. You definitely need to be okay reading teacher-student relationship books, but you need to want them to be more about the main character’s personal evolution, and that’s kind of a tricky spot? But I absolutely loved the humor in this, loved where the main character ended up at the end, and loved the raw honesty.

How to Repair a Mechanical Heart by JC Lillis – This is one I actually have yelled about quite a bit, but only very recently, as I was a super late reader. This one has pretty much everything love, especially in Gay YA – tons of chemistry and humor and heart, and also a lot of grappling with one’s own self, in this case in the context of reconciling homosexuality and religion, which I haven’t seen very much in YA at all. Highly, highly rec, especially if you loved Simon.

Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo – Another one I used to be really good about shouting about but kinda lost steam on for no reason other than there are SO MANY BOOKS OUT THERE. But honestly, this one is seriously special, in my opinion, as is Longo’s debut, Six Feet Over It. I think she writes beautifully, and she’s a master of setting choice and intertwining it with character development.

The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes – this is a killer political thriller, and I guess because she’s a pretty big name in thrillers, I haven’t really mentioned this one as often as I should have because I tend to focus on titles/authors I think need more of a boost? But maaaan, this one was so good and constantly had me guessing wrong. So excited to read the sequel, which is glaring at me from my “immediate TBR” bookcase…

The F- It List by Julie Halpern – I never remember to rec this one enough, and I loved it. The voice! The friendship! The sexual ownership! The way Halpern dealt with cancer! Just…everything. This is the epitome of a Dahlia book.

Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff – I, admittedly, do not read a lot of male authors, but Brezenoff writes such interesting stuff, and this is my so-far-favorite. I love his approach to gaming here and using it to examine both gender identity and empathy, and though I’ve never been a big gamer, it’s so much fun to be drawn back into the little bit of experience I have.

Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander – I have to admit that when I read this book, I would’ve thought I was burned out on cancer-centric love stories from all the Fault in Our Stars hubbub, but this book is actually more what I wish TFIOS would’ve been, I think? It’s so sweet and funny, and a little nerdy, and totally heartbreaking.

There are a lot of times I feel like we’re not having enough of the “right” conversations regarding representation, and one of most frustrating things to me is the way we discuss feminism in YA. While I do appreciate that sex-positivity is such a big part of the conversation, as it is something I am very pro, I’ve spent a lot of the past couple years feeling like that’s almost all of the conversation. (YA Feminist Chat, run by Justina Ireland, did cover several of the below topics; I definitely don’t want to erase that!)

(I also have a problem with how tremendously heteronormative* that conversation has been. Not only does that make it something that revolves around something requiring a guy**, but I also found when I wrote a post on YA Romances that pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test that I had to go through waaaay more m/f romances to find ones that passed than I did f/f. And before you say, “Of course, because the MC and LI conversing in that case would help them pass,” I only used books in it that passed via the MC and a non-love interest.

*And, as author Laura Tims pointed out when we discussed this on Twitter, allosexual-normative, as it leaves asexual feminists out in the cold as well. She also made other really great points, such as how sex-positivity benefits guys, so it’s not exactly shocking or super-impressive when they’re on board with this particular trait of feminism.

**Except when we’re talking solo sex, which is definitely a conversation I support. Was gratified to see it prominent in three YAs I read this year: The F-It List by Julie Halpern, The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler, and Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott.)

PS: read Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, because we shouldn’t be having any conversations about sex-positivity in YA without it.

I also think it means there are far too many things we’re not talking about, and therefore are not acknowledging are also parts of feminism.

Why aren’t we talking more about supportive girl-friendship in YA, and how few books feature it centrally?

(Some Existing Examples:The F-It List by Julie Halpern, Open Road Summer by Emery Lord, Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore, The Revenge Playbook by Rachael Allen, Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, Run by Kody Keplinger, and, not to be a tool, but Just Visiting by me)

Why aren’t we talking more about how few YAs feature girls with particular passions in STEM fields, or business, or any other fields we see are still very much struggle with accepting women?

(SEE: Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky, Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano, Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro, Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee)

Why aren’t we talking more about how few sports romances in both YA and NA feature female athletes?

(SEE: Most of Miranda Kenneally’s books, Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill, Game.Set.Match. by Jennifer Iacopelli, Scoring Wilder by R.S. Grey, The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen, and Kulti by Mariana Zapata)

(This, by the way, is why I love ballet books despite having no interest in ballet – I think they absolutely kill it across the board in terms of showing raw ambition, power, and endurance in girls in a way we don’t see with any other occupation.

SEE: Pointe by Brandy Colbert, Second Position by Katherine Locke, Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma, Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo, How it Feels to Fly by Kathryn Holmes)

Why don’t we have at least one major cheerleading book in YA or NA, something that takes a female-dominated sport stereotyped as fluffy and shows how much strength and endurance it really requires, a la Bring it On or Sweet Valley High books 112-114?

Why aren’t we talking more about the stunning lack of support for f/f books, despite the fact that they revolve entirely around girls?

(SEE in YA: If You Could Be Mine and Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan, Far From You by Tess Sharpe, pretty much everything by Malinda Lo and Robin Talley, Dating Sarah Cooper by Siera Maley, Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour, The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow, The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie, Georgia Peaches by Jaye Robin Brown, Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst)

SEE in NA: Black Iris and Cam Girl by Leah Raeder, The Good Girls by Teresa Mummert, Take Them by Storm by Marie Landry, The Gravity Between Us by Kristen Zimmer)

Why aren’t we talking more about different kinds of mother figures in YA and what their choices mean for the female main characters?

(SEE: The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding, The Right Side of Wrong by Jenn Marie Thorne, Me, Him, Them, and It by Caela Carter, How to Love by Katie Cotugno, Life By Committee by Corey Ann Haydu, The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos)

Why don’t we have more books in which girls embrace their body type, including when that type is fat?

(SEE: Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy, This Much Space by KK Hendin)

Why do we so strongly embrace Fantasy with physically powerful girls, but not contemporary?

(SEE: Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley, Bruised by Sarah Skilton, The Distance From Me to You by Marina Gessner)

Why aren’t we screaming about titles featuring intersectionality from the rooftops?

(SEE: Pointe by Brandy Colbert, Vanished by E.E. Cooper, Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, Black Iris and Cam Girl by Elliot Wake writing as Leah Raeder, The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie, Huntress by Malinda Lo, Far From You by Tess Sharpe, If You Could Be Mine and Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan, Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace, Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz)

Why do we think “feminine” is the opposite of “fierce,” and “feminist” the opposite of “soft”? Why do find characters who wield a sword but have a soft side to be unbelievable? Why do girls have to be all one thing to believable? Why do they have to have masculine traits to be bought as powerful?

Why don’t we talk more about internalized misogyny and the ridiculousness Cool Girl expectations so beautifully delineated by Gillian Flynn in Gone Girl (and shown excellently in its teen girl evolution in Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass)? (Also expressed in this really great post by Meagan Rivers.)

Why are we not having all these conversations nearly enough, and yet expecting things to get better?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, thanks to the lovely Jamie of Perpetual Page Turner! I live for this Annual End of Year Survey, even though it hurts my soul to have to narrow down responses.

These are always a little weird for me to do because writing the preview posts for B&N means that I read a lot of books far in advance – my reading schedule isn’t like most other book bloggers’ – and being an author means I might’ve beta read books two years before they come out. So, I’m sticking to books that were published in 2015 and that I read in 2015 (except where noted)!

2015 Reading Stats

Number Of Books You Read: 177
Number of Re-Reads: Only partial ones
Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary YA

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Discovering Delilah by Melissa Foster, which is f/f NA that turned out to be terribly biphobic. That was highly unfortunate.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

This releases early enough in 2016 that I feel okay using it! Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn was so, so bold, I was completely shocked that it got published as YA. Usually when you see storylines like that, you’re getting them at the tail end or something, when the MC is putting that behavior behind her. In this case, noooope.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

I actually asked on Twitter, and the most common response was Cam Girl by Leah Raeder.

5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2015?

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee. Sometimes I try to clear my ARC shelves quickly by reading the first couple of chapters of things I’m pretty sure I won’t like, then giving them away to someone I think will, and I’m pretty sure I picked this Steampunk up in one of those fits. I then proceeded to read the entire thing in one sitting, tell my husband he needed to read it too, and buy the hardcover.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Actually, when I think about the book that made me feel the most incredibly tense the longest, other than The Winner’s Kiss, it’s Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed. It’s neither action-packed nor a thriller, but I found it highly unputdownable! And I definitely have to mention The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, which had me guessing (wrong) the whole time.

9. Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa, because I’d like to read it over with different expectations. It was too hard to appreciate it while waiting for it to turn into the bisexual love triangle the blurb seemed to promise, but there’s so much obvious good in it, too. Also, for happy-making reasons, The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015?

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read?

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015?

“Her eyes widen and she shoves me back and then there’s a space between us, enough to paralyze me with all of the things I could do to her next. I could raise my hand and hit her in the face or bring my knee into her stomach, take a fistful of her hair and rip it out of her skull. You don’t get to do this when you’re a girl, so when the opportunity for violence finally presents itself, I want all of it at once.”
—All the Rage by Courtney Summers

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015?

23. Best 2015 debut you read?

Either Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert or The Sacred Lies of Minnow Blyby Stephanie Oakes. I loved a lot of debuts like burning, but those were the two whose writing made me say “I cannot believe these are debuts” over and over again.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Play On by Michelle Smith. I know it’s so hard for a small press book to get the love and attention is deserves, and I wish I could do more for this one, because I think the way it represents depression is so, so important and lacking in YA. Also This Side of Home by Renee Watson, which discusses gentrification and different expectations on and approaches to being a black girl. This book is criminally under-read and oddly under-recommended by diversity advocates, in my opinion.

I loved doing a panel at Teen Author Festival on series with Marie Rutkoski, Sarah Rees Brennan, Kass Morgan, Seth Fishman, and Barry Lyga, with David Levithan moderating.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015?

Oh man, I did a lot of new and cool stuff this year – I gave my first workshop, moderated my first panel, released two books…2015 was scary but good to me. Probably my favorite was the LGBTQ YA panel I did with Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera, Lindsay Ribar, and Michael Barakiva at McNally Jackson, though.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

You can click the links above for the first two lists. And now, here are my fave Sci-Fi and Fantasy YAs of the year!

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski (sequel to The Winner’s Curse, which I also read in 2015)

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement… if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she’s ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she’s fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it’s time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it’s how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren’t as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

In the months after his father’s suicide, it’s been tough for 16-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness again–but he’s still gunning for it. With the support of his girlfriend Genevieve and his overworked mom, he’s slowly remembering what that might feel like. But grief and the smile-shaped scar on his wrist prevent him from forgetting completely.

When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron spends all his time hanging out with this new guy, Thomas. Aaron’s crew notices, and they’re not exactly thrilled. But Aaron can’t deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself, despite the tensions their friendship is stirring with his girlfriend and friends. Since Aaron can’t stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad’s dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph’s reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she’d imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It’s an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid’s life as retribution for the many lives he’s stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

The Rose Society by Marie Lu (sequel to The Young Elites, which I also read in 2015)

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good when her very existence depends on darkness?

Bestselling author Marie Lu delivers another heart-pounding adventure in this exhilarating sequel to The Young Elites.

Greta is a duchess and crown princess—and a hostage to peace. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Go to war and your hostage dies.

Greta will be free if she can survive until her eighteenth birthday. Until then she lives in the Precepture school with the daughters and sons of the world’s leaders. Like them, she is taught to obey the machines that control their lives. Like them, she is prepared to die with dignity, if she must. But everything changes when a new hostage arrives. Elián is a boy who refuses to play by the rules, a boy who defies everything Greta has ever been taught. And he opens Greta’s eyes to the brutality of the system they live under—and to her own power.

As Greta and Elián watch their nations tip closer to war, Greta becomes a target in a new kind of game. A game that will end up killing them both—unless she can find a way to break all the rules.

In 1818 Geneva, men built with clockwork parts live hidden away from society, cared for only by illegal mechanics called Shadow Boys. Two years ago, Shadow Boy Alasdair Finch’s life shattered to bits.

His brother, Oliver—dead.

His sweetheart, Mary—gone.

His chance to break free of Geneva—lost.

Heart-broken and desperate, Alasdair does the unthinkable: He brings Oliver back from the dead.

But putting back together a broken life is more difficult than mending bones and adding clockwork pieces. Oliver returns more monster than man, and Alasdair’s horror further damages the already troubled relationship.

Then comes the publication of Frankenstein and the city intensifies its search for Shadow Boys, aiming to discover the real life doctor and his monster. Alasdair finds refuge with his idol, the brilliant Dr. Geisler, who may offer him a way to escape the dangerous present and his guilt-ridden past, but at a horrible price only Oliver can pay…

Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject’s body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighborhing kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage.

A richly conceived world full of political intrigue and fantastical dream sequences, at its heart Dreamstrider is about a girl who is struggling to live up to the potential before her.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart…

Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.

A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine.

I put up the first list last week, so, here’s the second one! As with Top Ten Contemps, this one’s actually Top Ten Contemps + one Magical Realism. And also two Historicals because that’s just the way it is.

(Note: I didn’t include any books that I beta’d, copy edited, or otherwise read before it sold; A) I haven’t read any of them in their final versions, and B) I am way too personally attached to compare them objectively to other books. However, I love love loved the hell out of all of them, hence the personal attachment, so those are listed below my top 10…er, 13…and I highly encourage reading them!

Ten years ago, God gave Braden a sign, a promise that his family wouldn’t fall apart the way he feared.

But Braden got it wrong: his older brother, Trey, has been estranged from the family for almost as long, and his father, the only parent Braden has ever known, has been accused of murder. The arrest of Braden’s father, a well-known Christian radio host, has sparked national media attention. His fate lies in his son’s hands; Braden is the key witness in the upcoming trial.

Braden has always measured himself through baseball. He is the star pitcher in his small town of Ornette, and his ninety-four-mile-per-hour pitch already has minor league scouts buzzing in his junior year. Now the rules of the sport that has always been Braden’s saving grace are blurred in ways he never realized, and the prospect of playing against Alex Reyes, the nephew of the police officer his father is accused of killing, is haunting his every pitch.

Braden faces an impossible choice, one that will define him for the rest of his life, in this brutally honest debut novel about family, faith, and the ultimate test of conviction.

The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust.

And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.

Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it’s clear that Minnow knows something—but she’s not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in oneself.

Mattie shouldn’t be at the bonfire. She should be finding new maps for her collection, hanging out with Kris, and steering clear of almost everyone else, especially Jolene. After all, Mattie and Kris dropped off the social scene the summer after sophomore year for a reason.

But now Mattie is a senior, and she’s sick of missing things. So here she is.

And there’s Jolene: Beautiful. Captivating. Just like the stories she wove. Mattie would know; she used to star in them. She and Jolene were best friends. Mattie has the scar on her palm to prove it, and Jolene has everything else, including Hudson.

But when Mattie runs into Hudson and gets a glimpse of what could have been, she decides to take it all back: the boyfriend, the friends, the life she was supposed to live. Problem is, Mattie can’t figure out where Jolene ends and she begins.

Because there’s something Mattie hasn’t told anyone—she walked away from Jolene over a year ago, but she never really left.

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

Kate Quinn’s mom died last year, leaving Kate parentless and reeling. So when the unexpected shows up in her living room, Kate must confront another reality she never thought possible—or thought of at all. Kate does have a father. He’s a powerful politician. And he’s running for U.S. President. Suddenly, Kate’s moving in with a family she never knew she had, joining a campaign in support of a man she hardly knows, and falling for a rebellious boy who may not have the purest motives. This is Kate’s new life. But who is Kate? When what she truly believes flies in the face of the campaign’s talking points, she must decide. Does she turn to the family she barely knows, the boy she knows but doesn’t necessarily trust, or face a third, even scarier option?

Set against a backdrop of politics, family, and first love, this is a story of personal responsibility, complicated romance, and trying to discover who you are even as everyone tells you who you should be.

Identical twins Nikki and Maya have been on the same page for everything—friends, school, boys and starting off their adult lives at a historically African-American college. But as their neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, suddenly filled with pretty coffee shops and boutiques, Nikki is thrilled while Maya feels like their home is slipping away. Suddenly, the sisters who had always shared everything must confront their dissenting feelings on the importance of their ethnic and cultural identities and, in the process, learn to separate themselves from the long shadow of their identity as twins.

In her inspired YA debut, Renée Watson explores the experience of young African-American women navigating the traditions and expectations of their culture.

Also, I majorly screwed up a post this year for the B&N Teen Blog in which I asked authors about recent purchases, and somehow left out a couple of answers. (Note to self: you are not good enough at multitasking to blog while at a work conference.) I loved what Brandy Colbert had to say about buying this book, so I’m reposting it here:

The last YA book I bought was This Side of Home by Renée Watson because a novel that deals with twins, race-based issues, and gentrification is a novel I’m automatically interested in reading. Not to mention it features a cover with a beautiful black girl’s face on the cover, something that is rare and needed in young adult fiction.

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She’s a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she’s madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she’s decided that she’s ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin’s first time isn’t the perfect moment she’s planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy “parts.”

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin’s entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?

An emotional contemporary YA novel about love, loss, and having the courage to chase the life you truly want.

Reeling from her mother’s death, Georgia has a choice: become lost in her own pain, or enjoy life right now, while she still can. She decides to start really living for the first time and makes a list of fifteen ways to be brave – all the things she’s wanted to do but never had the courage to try. As she begins doing the things she’s always been afraid to do – including pursuing her secret crush, she discovers that life doesn’t always go according to plan. Sometimes friendships fall apart and love breaks your heart. But once in a while, the right person shows up just when you need them most – and you learn that you’re stronger and braver than you ever imagined.

Olivia has spent her whole life struggling to escape her dead mother’s shadow. But when her father can’t even look at her because Olivia reminds him of her mother, and her grandmother mistakenly calls her “Lillian,” shaking a reputation she didn’t ask for is next to impossible. Olivia is used to leaning on her best friend, Jamie; her handsome but hot-tempered boyfriend, Max; and their wild-child friend, Maggie, for the reality check that her small Louisiana town can’t provide. But when a terrible fight between Jamie and his father turns deadly, all Olivia can think to do is grab her friends and run.

In a flash, Olivia, Jamie, Max, and Maggie become fugitives on the back roads of Louisiana. They’re headed to New Orleans, where they hope to find a solution to an unfixable problem. But with their faces displayed on all the news stations, their journey becomes a harrowing game of hide-and-seek from the police—and so-called allies, who just might be the real enemy.

Shalanda Stanley’s breathtaking debut novel explores the deep ties between legacy, loyalty, and love, even as it asks the question: How far would you go to save a friend?

For twenty years, the Palomas and the Corbeaus have been rivals and enemies, locked in an escalating feud for over a generation. Both families make their living as traveling performers in competing shows—the Palomas swimming in mermaid exhibitions, the Corbeaus, former tightrope walkers, performing in the tallest trees they can find.

Lace Paloma may be new to her family’s show, but she knows as well as anyone that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic from the devil himself. Simply touching one could mean death, and she’s been taught from birth to keep away. But when disaster strikes the small town where both families are performing, it’s a Corbeau boy, Cluck, who saves Lace’s life. And his touch immerses her in the world of the Corbeaus, where falling for him could turn his own family against him, and one misstep can be just as dangerous on the ground as it is in the trees.

Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush. Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.

Michael is unsure about most things. Go to college? Enlist in the military? Break up with his girlfriend? All big question marks. He is living for the moment and all he wants is a few days at the biggest concert of the summer.

Cora lives in the town hosting the music festival. She’s volunteering in the medical tent. She’s like that, always the good girl. But there is something in the air at this concert and suddenly Cora finds herself wanting to push her own boundaries.

When Michael and Cora meet, sparks fly, hearts race, and all the things songs are written about come true. And all the while, three days of the most epic summer await them…

*Aforementioned Books

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall – a fabulous and fashionable international thriller in the vein of the Da Vinci code with one of the best love triangles I’ve seen in YA

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia – a total heartbreaker that’ll mess with your head in the best way possible

Damage Done by Amanda Panitch – one of my favorite YA thrillers, period, and the rare one that actually lives up to the overused “YA Gone Girl” comp and then some

The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah (Fox) Benwell – beautiful, painful, and with so much you never see in YA, including a main character who’s both Japanese and disabled and the book actually taking place in Japan

Play On by Michelle Smith – a rare YA that puts mental health issues in the context of a sports romance, realistically exploring life with depression

As you may have gathered if you’ve been crowded anxiously at her social media accounts waiting for giveaways of ARCs of Map of Fates (as you should be!), light of my life, designer of my covers, and author of my ships Maggie Hall has got some stuff going on now and had to put them on hold. However, as Avery, Jack, Stellan, and most importantly Maggie have some raging fans, we’re taking over, to make sure the gorgeous, thrilling, sexy-as-all-hell sequel (and some corresponding swag) stays on everyone’s radar and gets into some good hands!

ARC, signed postcard, signed bookmark, and tattoos! (Photo: Sofia Embid)

However, we’re not just giving these beautiful ARCs and swag away. Every Conspiracy fan has to make the same tough choice:

Team Jack?

or

Team Stellan?

If you wanna win an ARC, you’re gonna have to choose: pick one of the below pictures (with thanks to creator Diana Sousa!) and share it – on Instagram and Twitter – with the hashtag #MapOfMates, and tell us where you’d want to be swept away on an all-expenses-paid trip!

On January 2, we’ll pick five ARC winners, and yes, the giveaway is international!

Whether you enter or not, please spread the word; Maggie’s an amazing, generous, and talented member of the YA community, and now’s the time to show her all the support we can. (But, like, you should enter, because these books are pretty damn good.)

So, as you may have noticed, I didn’t actually post anything on this blog last week when my newest YA, Just Visiting, which is very dear to my heart, released, in part because I was super busy, but mostly because due to some snafu I didn’t know about until a couple of days earlier and hoped I’d be able to get fixed but couldn’t, the Kindle release was pushed to November 24, i.e. today, a week after the actual release date.

Today, the book is finally and completely out everywhere possible, so, YAY, happy release day to Reagan and Victoria and Just Visiting and me!

(Clockwise from top left: Poster at Books of Wonder, amazing college-theme decor/refreshments provided by my husband, me with the glorious Natasha of Book Baristas, me and my sis, and me with Lindsay and Ellen Goodlett posing with the Dreamstrider dedication page (and invoking the spirit of Leah Raeder)

It was such a fun night, and I appreciate so much everyone who came from near and far, especially in the rain! (Shoutout to Conviction author Kelly Loy Gilbert for coming while she’s in NYC and signing my copy of her amazing book!)

Other fun stuff:

My amazing CP Marieke Nijkamp, author of This is Where it Ends, interviewed me for the lovely Judith of Binge on Books’ Authors Interviewing Authors series, so you can check that out here and see which of my characters from across my books I think would’ve made some bad decisions together.

And speaking of interviews, the delightful Alice of Alice Reeds interviewed me as well.

I wrote a post for the B&N Teen Blog about friendship and the various kinds of representation in Just Visiting, and where else in YA you can find it.

The fabulous Rachel of Hello, Chelly wrote a great post about how she personally connected with Just Visiting, as did the wonderful Alexa of Alexa Loves Books.

Finally, I joined in the Novel Secrets Blog Tour and shared why Just Visiting is set in Kansas, and how the same person who inspired the setting inspired the character of Jamie.

All in all, some good celebrating! Thank you so much to everyone who wished well, congratulated on the book birthday, came to the party, wrote a review, interviewed me, wrote a blog post, shared their love, and everything else! <3<3<3

Happy Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of the Broke and the Bookish! To be perfectly honest, the whole “Auto-Buy” thing gets trickier when you’re an author yourself, because there are friends I’m literally always gonna support with my wallet no matter WTF they publish and whether I have any interest in reading it. Truth be told, writerly friendships most often happen because you love their work, so, it’s not like that doesn’t count, but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to use the standard of “Published Authors I Have Never Met or Talked to On the Phone.”

Courtney Summers – shock and awe, I know. Because it’s not like I mention her in literally every blog post of my faves.

Melina Marchetta – See “Courtney Summers.” Then buy all her books.

Nina LaCour – See “Courtney Summers.” Then buy all her books.

Laura Wiess – I haven’t even read all of her books, but I keep buying them, and know I’ll read them eventually. I love that I don’t know exactly what to expect from them, but I know they’ll be dark, and thoughtful, and have heroines who screw up, and that’s enough for me.

Amy Reed – See “Laura Wiess.”

Lauren Strasnick – See “Laura Wiess.”

Sarah Ockler – I have not had a 100% Love or even Like rate with her books, but I will always, always try them. For one thing, I like her writing style. For another, she’s one of the two biggest authors I can think of in contemp YA romance who writes non-white characters. The other being…

Trish Doller – …(which is the reason I asked them to blurb Behind the Scenes.)

Sara Farizan – Two for two with f/f romances featuring intersectional diversity, which is kind of my crack, so.

Brandy Colbert – You know when you read just one book by an author but everything about it tells you that you’re gonna like everything she does in the future? That was me and Pointe. And by this logic…

Tess Sharpe because Far From You and

Alexis Bass because Love and Other Theories

Top Thirteen Tuesday still counts as a TTT, yes? Yes. Now tell me, dear bloggers, who are your instabuys?